random thoughts

I'm really trying to save money.  I'm no longer living with my ex-wife (MB), because she is inheriting & also working on financing the place that her late father lived.   I am also trying to finance and buy out MB's share of the condo.  I learned, however, that it will not be easy.  Yet, there are solutions.  I have:

• turned the air conditioner so that it's not used as much;
• cleaned the bedrooms and picked areas that have been a bit overlooked.  Now, there is no blaming or criticizing about areas of the condo overlooked.  Yet, with the kids sometimes not at the condo, but over with their mother in the house, I can throw away things that need to be taken out, dust, sweep and vacuum;
• we were very fortunate to have such nice neighbors.  One of Ted's good friends is Jake who lives next door.  His father gave us the very topline Dyson vacuum cleaner which I have put to good use;
• I had to go to MB's house, and I did not want to spend any money on expensive gas, so I biked/walked the 2 1/2 miles.  The first half of the trip, I biked west on the Cook County Forest Preserve bike trail.   I then hid my bike into the forest where people couldn't see it and walked the rest of the way.  Maribeth's tenant, Sal, was kind enough to give me a ride to approximately where my bike was.  More on Sal at   http://25mi-swchicago.blogspot.com/
• On the same night, Ted, my 2nd son, was concerned about me, because I had lived by myself for 2 days with no kids around.  "Are you ok?", he asked that twice ! !  What a good kid ! Then when he knew that I walked over to save money and not burn any gas driving my car, he gave me $3 !
• I broke the news to my kids that we don't need or are required to have cable anymore; Cable is basically entertainment, and we could rent a few movies per month at a much cheaper price.  We will still have about 20 channels anyway through digital broadcast.  The kids were strong and took it in stride.  I was going to get ride of my landline phone too. But the problem is that I would use my cellphone more, go over the allotted 300 minutes and then have to spend more money on my cellphone bill.  I don't need to do that. 

We have to be thankful for what we have.  There has to be an effort to continue to find better opportunities either working at a hospital again, finding a better law firm or a combination of staying at the same law firm and working at the hospital.

& here's  a picture of Ted; I'm very glad he decided to get his hair cut !  The 3 boys decided at Nate's birthday party to have frosting on their face.  That was the cool thing to do !  Now, can't you see that's cool (lol) ?